•Ijaw youths ask Yar’Adua to apologize
Militants
Push could come to shove with regards to the raging power tussle in the Presidency, if feelers emerging from the Niger Delta are anything to go by.
groups are being mobilized by concerned leaders in the region to respond to the “dangerous ethnic trend” that had been introduced into the Aso Rock power game.
Some key former militant leaders are also said to have been contacted as part of a strategic plan to compel the cabal to stop undermining the Acting President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan.
One of the former warlords who confirmed this, but spoke on condition of anonymity, said they had watched the developments in the Presidency as it affected Jonathan and decided that it is time to act.
“Enough is enough. Since they (the cabal) have decided that Jonathan cannot occupy the office of the President because he is from the Niger Delta, we have also resolved that our oil is not for Nigeria. In fact, we are ready to dismember Nigeria. If they do not want us in Nigeria, they should not want our oil too.
“The issue is not about Jonathan, but our region. They have only used Jonathan to tell us to our faces that we are not equal in this country. So, when we start, we will ensure that there is no oil to depend on anymore. Let them use groundnut, hide and skin to run Nigeria. Since force is the language they understand, we will cripple the economy,” our source said, warning that the attacks would not be restricted to the Niger Delta.
The source insisted that the amnesty programme under which militants in the region surrendered various sophisticated arms and ammunition in October 2009 was not a hindrance as new weapons could be easily acquired within the country.
“We can start another war if we want because getting weapons is not a problem. They are everywhere in the country. You can see that the amnesty has failed, but we have restrained ourselves from going back to the creeks so that we would not be accused of being unpatriotic. But how long are we going to endure the conditions that made us take up arms in the first place?”
At the time of this report, tension was said to be high in the region with meetings being held in various areas in the creeks. Sunday Sun gathered that hostilities could resume this weekend.
A group under the aegis of the South-South Elders and Leaders Forum had, on Thursday, warned that the region would secede if the cabal continues to treat Jonathan with disdain.
Sources in the Presidency confirmed to Sunday Sun that the Acting President had not seen or met with ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua since the latter was brought into the country in an air ambulance in the early hours of last Wednesday.
Yar’Adua was for three months hospitalized in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for acute pericarditis.
His return to the country was shrouded in secrecy just the way the Saudi authorities ensured he was shielded from Nigerian government officials that visited Jeddah during his hospitalization.
Curiously, Yar’Adua’s wife, Turai that was to brief Jonathan on the health condition of her husband on Thursday reportedly shunned the meeting.
Meanwhile, the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) has asked Yar’Adua to apologize to Nigerians for plunging the country into crisis.
In an exclusive interview with Sunday Sun, the IYC president, Dr Chris Ekiyor, said a crisis of monumental proportion was imminent because of the prolonged regime of secrecy surrounding Yar’Adua’s health condition and had been fuelled by his secret return into the country.
“If it is true that the President has returned to Nigeria, it is good. But let him go ahead and address the nation and even apologise to Nigerians for throwing us into this crisis. Then let him resume office and give us a direction.
“There was never a time Dr Jonathan, the Ijaw or even the Niger Delta people prayed that Yar’Adua should not return. We had always prayed for his recovery and return because we believe in the unity of this country. Our worry, however, is that why is he being hidden from the Acting President and the rest of Nigerians?”
Ekiyor, who spoke to Sunday Sun at the venue of Niger Delta Peace Consolidation Conference at The Hague in Netherlands, cautioned Nigerians to be wary of the whims of those he described as manipulators in the Presidency.
“I don’t believe it is Turai Yar’Adua that is doing the manipulating. Instead, I think some people are using Turai as a front. After all, there is no constitutional provision for the office of the First Lady. Such ceremonial position cannot supersede an elective office. For instance, in France, the wife of the President quit her marriage because she said she wanted a home and not the Presidency. But here, our President’s wife is desperate to hold on to power,” he said.
The Ijaw youth leader urged Jonathan to assert himself, saying he must continue to act as president until Yar’Adua is ready to resume office.
Stand-off imminent
Jonathan may have decided to stand up against the shenanigans of the cabal by asserting his empowerment as Acting President by the National Assembly.
A Presidency source informed Sunday Sun at the weekend that he has decided to resist any move by Yar’Adua’s loyalists to reverse the February 9 re
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